


Try Again Later

by drarryangels



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Auror Ron, Drarry, M/M, Modern, Modern AU, Phones, Sad, Sad Ending, Tumblr, Voicemail, ask, phone, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 16:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21341590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drarryangels/pseuds/drarryangels
Summary: “I miss you.” Silence again. “I don’t think you want to hear from me. I’ve called you a couple times…well, more than a couple times. I didn’t think we would still be fighting. I mean, our fights never last this long. And it was only about how to cook the chicken.” Harry sighed and rested his head forward on the edge of the table. “Just call me back, I guess.”
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 85





	Try Again Later

Harry set the phone down and stared down at his hand resting over the phone on the kitchen table. The grains of the wood streamlined under his fingertips, going nowhere. Harry levitated a cup of tea from the kitchen and let his magic settle it down in front of him. The steam rose up from the mug and fogged the edges of his glasses.

Harry took a deep breath and picked the phone up again. The screen lit up, showing no missed calls, no texts, and the time. 11:27 pm. Harry unlocked his phone and clicked the most recent caller again.

_“Draco Malfoy of London. Leave a message.”_

Harry hung up and set the phone down, but picked it up again after a moment.

The voice message repeated itself, and Harry let the voicemail continue. Silence came in static across the recording for a moment.

“Hullo,” Harry said, his voice broken. “It’s Harry. You already know that though.”

Harry laughed a little and sniffed violently, pressing his free hand against the grains of the table.

“I miss you.” Silence again. “I don’t think you want to hear from me. I’ve called you a couple times…well, more than a couple times. I didn’t think we would still be fighting. I mean, our fights never last this long. And it was only about how to cook the chicken.” Harry sighed and rested his head forward on the edge of the table. “Just call me back, I guess.”

Harry hung up the phone and set it back on the table. He sat like that for a long time, watching the sky get darker than he thought possible, watching the minutes and then hours tick by, letting his heart sink farther into his stomach. It was 5:26 am when the phone rang.

Harry jerked up from his slumped posture and snatched up the telephone, clicking answer without looking at the caller’s name.

“Hello? Draco?”

“_Oh, Harry. It’s not Draco.”_

_“_Oh. Hermione. What’s going on?” Harry leaned back into his seat and pressed his fingers into his face in exhaustion.

“_You said you and Draco had a fight yesterday, right?”_

_“_Yeah, why?”

“_Harry… I don’t know how to… I don’t know how to tell you this.”_

“Tell me what?”

“_Can I come over?”_

_“_Yes.”

Barely a second after the dial tone indicated that Hermione had hung up, she stepped through the fireplace into his and Draco’s flat with a whirling swirl of green and yellow flames.

She hurried to his side right away and sat next to him, grabbing Harry’s hand before he could even stand up to greet her.

“Hermione?” Harry looked at her through bleary eyes in confusion. “What’s wrong? Why are you here?”

Hermione sighed and combed her hair back over her shoulder. “I’m just going to say it, okay? But please don’t freak out.”

“I’m too tired to freak out,” Harry said, toying with his phone between his fingers and the wood table.

Hermione shook her head, seemingly to herself, and then looked up and into Harry’s eyes. “They found Draco.”

Harry stiffened. “Who found Draco? He wasn’t missing.”

“You thought-” Hermione choked down a couple breaths. “-you thought he wasn’t answering his phone because he was mad at you. Right?”

Harry nodded. The phone fell limp in his hand.

“He’s… he’s not okay. There was an accident. He got in a taxi, and there was an accident.”

Harry couldn’t breathe. He didn’t know what this meant, what Hermione was trying to say, how to think.

“He’s on life support, but they say it’s too late. He won’t be able to breathe on his own.”

“Why didn’t-” Harry could barely get words out of his mouth, “why am I just hearing this?” Desperation crept into his voice. “Why was I not the first to know?”

Hermione set her hands on Harry’s trembling shoulders. “He wasn’t carrying any identification on him. The Muggles didn’t know who he was, and his phone was destroyed when the semi-truck rear ended the taxi he was in.”

Harry’s vision was going blurry. Air, what was air?

“Harry, listen to me. Ron was at a Muggle hospital, just by chance. He had to take in an Auror case; there was a Muggle victim who needed care.” Harry couldn’t see Hermione anymore. He could only hear her voice. “Ron identified him right away, and got caught in paperwork with the hospital. I called you the second I found out.”

“What can I do?” Harry said faintly.

Hermione finally came into focus. Her face was streaked with tears and blotchy with patches of uneven blush. Her hair was frizzy and untied, indicating she had leaped out of bed and came straight here.

“There isn’t anything,” Hermione whispered. “All you can do is say goodbye.”

“I’ll meet you at the hospital.” Harry’s voice sounded strange to his own ears. “You go on ahead. I need a second.”

Hermione tried to say something, tried to drag Harry along with her, but he couldn’t move. Eventually, Hermione gave up, patting his shoulder and kissing the top of his head, and then Apparating away.

Silence. There was stuffy, cottony silence.

It couldn’t be true. It was Draco. Steady, ever present, irritating, lovely Draco. Draco, who ran his fingers through Harry’s curls every single morning without fail. Draco, who took nothing in his tea, and refused to try coffee under any circumstance. Draco, who would slip his hand under the back of Harry’s shirt and rest his palm in the curve of Harry’s spine when they were alone. Draco, who whispered all the ways he thought Harry was beautiful in his ear when he was draped over him, all skin and nothing in between. Draco, who had fallen into step with Harry’s friends seamlessly and with overbearing apologies. Draco, who was so much more than he had ever given himself credit for. 

Harry picked up the phone and called Draco’s number. 

_“This number’s mailbox is full. Please try again later.”_


End file.
